Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me. I wish.

Rating: General

A/N: Sorry for the long delay in updating the story. I have just started school so I don't have many nights to type or continue the story. However, due to the insistence and reviews urging me to continue, I've decided to give you a long chapter to compensate for the long delay. Enjoy!

The Split Of The Dozen By Avren 6 Confessions

3 a.m.

Lying flat on his back, staring at the ceiling, Mike mulled over his mass of jumbled thoughts for almost four hours now.

Should I or should I not? Eargh!

It was almost 3 am and he still hasn't shut his eyes. It was unusual for him cos' he was usually a heavy sleeper and once his head hits the pillows, he would immediately fall into a deep slumber. However, tonight, it was a different case.

He had tried counting the cracks on the ceiling with the help of the small stray of light coming from the window but even as he reached 1999, his eyes was still wide awake! So after staring for another few minutes, he finally let out a sigh that resounded through the darkness of his bedroom.

"Oh alright," he finally said to himself. "I'll go talk to Jake."

He got off his bed and arranged his pillows and bolster so that it resembles a person, just in case his mom checks upon him later. Making sure that it looks believable, he quietly opens the door and checks the hallway for any sign of the 'rents. Tiptoeing out, he silently shuts the door and headed towards the end of the hallway, where Jake's room was located. Nearing the doorway of Jake's room, he could hear slight snores coming from it. At least someone managed to get a good nights rest.

Pushing the door open, he slid inside and closed the door behind him softly. Making sure he hears nothing outside the door, he crept towards Jake's bed. Shaking Jake's arm lightly, he received no response from him. Not even a stir. Man, he sleeps like a log! Mike rolled his eyes to himselfHe nudged Jake's side but all that he got was a "Mom, five more minutes, please." And without even fluttering an eyelid! .

"Dat's it!" he cried and abandoned all reservations to be silent and punched Jake's arm, hard. How was I to confide in someone if the person I'm talking to wasn't even awake?

Jake finally jerked awake and let out a painful moan. Pushing back on his elbows, he tried to prop himself up to look at his attacker. Rubbing his eyes so that he could see more clearly, he found Mike standing at his side, face looking a bit apprehensive as he stared back at him. Confusion marred Jake's face and he chanced a glance at his alarm on his bedside table and his eyes widened, thus making him sit up straight.

"Geez Mike! It's only THREE O'CLOCK in the MORNING! Why the heck are you still up at this hour?" he shouted as he rubbed the spot on his arm where Mike had hit him earlier and continued, "And why did you hit me so hard?!"

Mike winced slightly at the loudness of their conversation.

"Ssshh! Could you be any louder? Sheesh!" he whispered sarcastically to Jake, glancing at the door, afraid that their mom or dad would suddenly burst through the door. "Do you want to wake mom and dad up?!"

He clambered onto Jake's bed and sat at the end of it. He looked at Jake who was rubbing his arm and spoke up. "I'm sorry about your arm. But I didn't hit you that hard. You're just a wuss," he grinned at him and immediately ducked a pillow heading straight for his face. "I'm just kidding!"

" Well, you either tell me why you're here at this ungodly hour, dude, or you let me get back to sleep and I won't blab to dad about this," Jake said as he shifted into a comfortable position crossed his arms and leaned back against his headboard, waiting for an answer.

"To tell you the truth, its because you snored like a bulldozer and I can hear you right from across the hallway and I can't sleep because of the noise. That's why I hit you hard. Cause you also slept like a log! " Mike teased.

"I do not!"

"You do too!"

"Fine dude, whatever. You still haven't answered my question. Why areyou still up this late or should I say early?" raising an eyebrow at Mike, Jake questioned.

Mike let out a long sigh and creases of apprehension marred his face.

"Well, I've got something to tell you."

" Uh Duh! I've already known that. Continue already!"

" It's kinda hard to explain. I don't know how to tell you this…" he trailed off his sentence.

Jake slapped his forehead with frustration and rolled his eyes. "C'mon Mike, I'm sleepy and you're obviously sleepy. Could you hurry up and get it over and done with so that we both can get some sleep? We've got school tomorrow too!" he urged.

"It's hard okay! I really don't know what to do. I'm telling you this cos' maybe you also need to know and maybe you'd know what to do. It's something about dad."

Jake immediately sat up straight and raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Is this the cause of you being so quiet these past few days? " Mike just nodded. "Well, then you need to tell Sarah too."

"Sarah? No!"

"Why not?"

"Oh, I don't know…I'm not sure how she'd react and I'm afraid she'll take this quite hard and do something stupid or otherwise," he finished.

"Well then, you just gotta take the risk then. And lets hope that she'll do the otherwise instead of the 'something stupid'. And I'm sure she'd want to hear this."

"But..but….-"

" No buts. Its either now or tomorrow morning and sooner or later, dude, you still have to face her. Well, actually, us two were gonna talk to you this morrningg…- " and he yawned widely before continuing "- cos' we're curious why you're down in the dumps lately. So if you wanna tell me, just tell her too," Jake insisted, and hopped off his bed and immediately yelped and jumped back onto his bed

"What what?! What's wrong?" Mike called out.

"The floor is like FROZEN or something!" He said, clambering across his bed to his drawer at the foot of his bed and retrieving a pair of thick woolen socks and pulling it up his feet. The floor can be bitingly cold sometimes.

Mike just snickered and shook his head at his bro'.

"Now c'mon and lets go wake her up so we can get this over and done with!" Jake urged, moving towards the door.

"Do I have too? Can't I just tell you and then you tell her?" Mike pleaded.

"C'mon, you might as well tell us both now and save me the trouble. And, If I had to be rudely awaken at 3 am in the morning," glaring pointedly at Mike, who just smiled sheepishly back, "She should also have the honor of this morning wake up call from us too! So lets go!"

"Oh alright alright." He resigned, though reluctantly. Jake went towards the door, beckoning him to do so, gesturing them to be quiet with his finger on his lips. Opening the door, Jake peeked outside to see if anyone had awoken by the noise that they were making just now. Figures. All Bakers sleep like logs.

Behind him, Mike whispered, "Aren't you gonna do anything to your bed? What if Mom or Dad barges in here and find you're out of bed?"

"Dude, don't worry. I'll make something out if that happens and only IF that do happen which is unlikely cos' I've done this tons of times with Sarah and I haven't been busted before have I?" Jake grinned reassuringly. " Now, c'mon. Post haste and dude, two words – 'qui-et'," Jake warned and tiptoed out of the room and waited by the side for Mike to do so.

Shutting the door behind silently, Mike followed Jake as they silently crept along the hallway in the dimly lit hallway, passing by Henry and Charlie's room towards the room at the other end of the hallway - Sarah's room.

Reaching her room, they found the door closed but unlocked so they had no difficulties getting in. Turning the doorknob, Jake opened it slightly and knew that Sarah was sound asleep from the sounds of even breathing coming from her bed. He slipped inside, followed by Mike who shut the door behind. Heading towards one side of the bed while Mike headed towards the other, they stood opposite each other and could faintly see each other's facial expression from the beam of light from outside the window that was coming from the streetlamp.

"So now what?" Mike spoke softly. "How do we wake her up? My way or yours?"

A sly smile creased Jake's face. "I've got an idea. Let's have a bit of fun, shall we?" he asked Mike who just raised an eyebrow questioningly back at him.

Jake glanced around the room and found what he was searching for. Perfect! He thought as he plucked off two black and white striped feathers off a Red Indian headscarf that Sarah once used for Halloween, which was hanging on her wall. He went back to his side beside Sarah's bed and handed Mike one of the feathers. Mike just snickered cheekily and said," You go first then."

"My pleasure," and Jake started by lightly tickling Sarah's ears.

Sarah at first did not stir at the first touch of the tickling but after a while, she subconsciously began swatting her ears. Jake and Mike snickered as Sarah shifted her position to try and stop the disturbance to her ears but now; Mike had joined in the tickling. "This is fun", he mouthed to Jake who just nodded back and they mischievously continued with the tickling while Sarah kept swatting her ears. All of this is done while Sarah was still asleep.

Sarah's subconscious thoughts

Why are my ears suddenly so itchy? She sleepily thought as the itch around her ears was persistently bothering her.She tried scratching it first and for a moment, the itch stopped but just as she was falling back into her dreamless sleep, the itch started again. Frustrations grew and she couldn't take the itch anymore that she suddenly jolted up from her lying position to find two figures holding a pointed object flanking her sides in the dark. Even the two figures were slightly surprised by her sudden jerk.

"What the- " she started to shriek but two hands that came out from the two figures muffled her voice.

She tried to struggle but the hands held her back. "Lemmegoff!" she tried to scream but the hands tighten.

"Sarah!" a familiar voice that sounded exactly like Jake's suddenly whispered firmly from her side. "Hold still! It's only us!" he insisted. "And don't' scream or you'll wake mom and dad up!"

"Yeah, its only me and Jake," Mike also spoke from her other side.

She stopped her struggling but they still haven't released her from their clutches.

"We'll let you go if you promise you won't hurt us or anything after this," Jake asked, hesitantly.

Yeah right! As if! She fumed inwardly but she just nodded her head and they released their hands from her mouth. What they did not expect was an outburst from her.

"What the heck were BOTH of you trying to do?!" she demanded, though softly. "You guys scared the hell out of me! Standing there like that in the dark!" she fumed, and turned on the bedside lamp so that she could see her 'attackers'. "And were you the ones making the itch around my ears?!" she demanded, glaring at them as she spotted the so called 'pointed' object which turned out to be feathers from her Red Indian headband.

" Heh…." They both smiled sheepishly at her and quickly hid the feathers behind their backs. She just punched Jake's arm, followed by Mike's and they both winced in pain. "Don't ever do that again to me, do you hear me?!" she ordered and they both nodded vigorously, massaging the spot where she hit them.

"You promised you wouldn't hurt us!" Mike moaned.

"I didn't hurt you! I'm merely applying physical pain on the anatomy of two idiots!" She explained but with a smirk at the corner of her mouth.

"Since when did you turn into Kim and Jessica?"

"Since I was rudely disturbed by two of by brothers who got nothing better to do than wake people up in the middle of the night!" She retorted.

That's twice I've been bruised in one night. What luck, sighed Jake to himself as he shake his head in misery.

"So?" She prodded on, tapping her finger impatiently on her arm. "What are you guys doing here? Having a midnight feast?" she asked, and her eyes suddenly lit up in mischief. "Or do you guys want to plot a prank on Lorraine or Charlie?" She asked eagerly.

"No! Nothing like that! Well….not right now anyway." Said Mike.

"Well," Jake started, "Mike here have got something to tell us. He said it's something important."

"Well even if its important, can't it wait till there's at least sunlight outside my window? Or at least when I'm more that half awake?" she turned to Mike, exasperated from being woken up in the wee hours of the morning.

"That's what I said too," Jake nodded in agreement. Sarah just sighed and shifted over in her bed to make room for the two of them to sit on her bed and she yawned widely, obviously sleepy. She might as well make herself more comfortable if this is going to take some time. Jake and Mike got on the bed with Jake sitting beside her and leaning against her bed's headboard while Mike plopping himself in front, facing them.

"So go on, what is it that you wanted to say that's so important?" Sarah prompted.

" Well, ever since that day I haven't been able to sleep! It's maddening. Why does it always happen to me?!" Mike mumbled incoherently leaving both Sarah and Jake you slow down a little and talk in a language that we could at least understand?" Sarah asked exasperated.

"Yeah, and please start from the beginning. Since we're all comfortable and we have a whole lot of time to listen. No worries. We don't need sleep," Jake said, receiving a smack on his head from who else. Glaringly, Sarah said, "Would you please let him continue already? I need my sleep here." "C'mon Mike. You can do this," she urged, looking at her younger brother whose face was looking a little distraught. I really wonder what happened to make him like that.

Mike took a deep breath and said solemnly, " Dad's having an affair."

The silence that followed that sentence was deafening as Sarah and Jake just stared back at Mike, positively dumfounded. Not a single movement came from both of them as they sat side-by-side, jaws dropped open. For a few moments, the silence lasted until Sarah shattered it with a gasp of disbelief.

"You're kidding! You're just pulling our legs! Aren't you? " Sarah asked, still unsure whether she had heard Mike correctly.

"Dude! That's whack man! Are you sure you know what you're talking about?" Jake gasped incredulously. Both of them were now leaning forward to hear his explanation.

"I couldn't believe what I heard too, until I saw her picture in Dad's drawer."

"Well it could have been anybody! It could have been his secretary-" Sarah tried to reason,

"But we've never seen her before-" Jake interrupted,

"-or it could be a long lost cousin-"

"- but he would have told us already-"

"-or you're just paranoid-"

"-or maybe you're right!"

Both of them finished at the same time. Sarah faced Jake and glowered. " Whose side are you supposed to be on? You're not helping things here, ya' know and we don't know for sure that it's true," she gritted while Jake just shrugged his shoulders back at her. To Mike, she questioned calmly. "Mike. Are you sure of what you've seen? Could you have been mistaken or something?"

"I'm positive! The other day while I was hanging upside down from the roof with my bungee cords, which was WAY AWESOME by the way and it was like everything's upside down and I could feel all my blood rushing to my brain and-"

"Mike! Get on with it already! You're rambling!" chided Sarah.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized while Jake just snickered. "Well, I was saying. …what was I saying earlier anyway?" Sarah just slapped her forehead in despair. "You tell him Jake." She resigned.

" Blood rushing to your brain…. Ouch! What did'ya do that for?"

"Not that part doofus! Mike, you were saying that you were hanging from the roof and…" gesturing him on to continue.

"Oh, yeah and I was hanging near Dad's office near the window and Dad was inside talking on the phone. He didn't even notice me! He was talking so softly on the phone that I could barely hear him but I did hear bits of his conversation, as the window was slightly open. He was saying 'can't wait to see you too' and he signed off with a 'Love you Trish and I miss you'! That couldn't possibly any of our cousins or aunts cos' none of then have the name Trish!" he concluded firmly.

Sarah and Jake were silent as they pondered on what Mike had just told them.

Sarah and Jake's thoughts

Is it true? Is dad really having an affair? But how could he?

Dad having an affair? Eww! That's way gross just thinking about it!

He's already got TWELVE KIDS! He needs a new wife for another set?

What's Mom going to feel if she find out?

Where am I gonna get new skates and my allowance from then?

Their mass of jumbled thoughts swam across each other's heads as the prospect of their very own dad having an affair with another woman is starting to seep into their brains and all the different problems that would surface out of it became crowding their thoughts.

"So what are we gonna do about this?" they both blurted out simultaneously.

"That's what I wanted to know! That's why I'm telling the both of you in the middle of the night!" Mike replied, thoroughly frustrated with the problem at hand.

"Wait! Mike, you said you saw a picture of her right?" Sarah suddenly asked. Mike nodded. "Yeah, so?"

"Well, first thing we gotta do is to check whether that picture is really what it seems. If we can get a hold of the picture, maybe we can find out who exactly she is and what she is to dad." She suggested.

Comprehension dawned on Jake as he also began to get what Sarah was trying to say.

"Yeah! And maybe, we can sneak into Dad's office tomorrow or when he's not around and duplicate it and then search the net to find out more about her!" He added eagerly, turning to Sarah to see whether she agrees with him.

"And we can also search Dad's drawers to see if there's any letters or anything that they could have written to each other before and see whether Dad is really having an affair or not." She finished.

Mike just sat there quietly, trying to digest the information overload coming from his two siblings. Wow, they sure have quick thinking! He thought to himself and looked at them in awe.

"Boy, both of you sure looks like you have everything planned out! Do you share the same brain or something?" He asked, still recovering from the earlier bombardment of ideas.

"I'm sure it's the something part. We could never share the same brain, cos' all his thoughts would be overloaded with skateboarding or chicks and the rest would be filled with all the 'two words' that he can think of!" She joked lightly, while Jake retorted with a "Hey, that's not true!" and they all laughed light-heartedly, easing the tension that had blanketed the room earlier with that shocking piece of news.

"Okay, so what's the plan now?" Mike asked, when they had all finished teasing each other.

"Well, we go get the photo from dad's drawer and start from there."

"Should we include the rest of the guys? I mean, they should know too cos' its their dad too." Jake asked.

"Hmm..We'll see what happens tomorrow first. Or we can just sleep on it and maybe we can think of a plan in our sleep." She suggested, letting out a huge yawn and stretched out on the bed, knocking over Mike who was sitting in front of her. "Oops, sorry Mike. Hehe!"

"Great idea, since I'm already deprived of my beauty sleep by Mike waking me up at 3 and GOSH!" Jake's eyes widened as he saw what time it was from the clock on the wall. "It's almost five am! And we've got school tomorrow!" he moaned as his eyes began to droop and he rested his head on Sarah's pillow. "Is it okay if we just crash here for tonight cos' I'm lazy to go back to my room and we'll just go back in the morning which will be like in 1 ½ hours." He mumbled, already half asleep without waiting for her answer.

"Sure, make yourself right at home," she said sarcastically, As if they haven't done that already, and rolled her eyes at her brothers who were both slumped across her bed, leaving little room for her. Oh well, what the heck, and she stretched sideways to switch off the light and squeezed herself in between the space that was left in her crowded single bed. For a few moments, she stared in the dark when a thought dawned on her. She called out softly to Mike.

"Mike…you still awake?" she asked. A mumbled sound answered her. She whispered, "When you said you found her photo in Dad's drawer, what were you doing in dad's office?" There was no answer. Apparently, he had fallen asleep. Oh well, there's always tomorrow and she drifted off to sleep.

TBC

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this out. Had to use writer's block as an excuse cos' that's what happened. Thanks for all the reviews though. I really appreciate it!